


Witness

by Traviosita9124



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Implied Character Death, Implied Unrequited Love, Stand Alone, drabble length, pre-season one finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2015-04-14
Packaged: 2018-03-22 19:11:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3740344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traviosita9124/pseuds/Traviosita9124
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fitz has been trained to observe and learn. Unfortunately, some truths he's learned too late. </p><p>Originally written before the season one finale, so it's not quite canon-compliant, but I wanted to post it here, as well as to tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Witness

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Witness  
wit-ness /witnis/

noun  
a person who sees an event take place  
evidence, proof

verb  
give or serve as evidence of; testify to

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

He’d trained himself from a young age to watch, to observe and think things through rationally before acting. It was the only way for him to survive being a boy living in a man’s world, learning to navigate university when he should have been stumbling through first jobs and first cars and first heartaches. 

But to be honest, those things had never interested him much. 

He would rather watch the parts of a motor run, carefully calculating which parts were sufficiently efficient for his design before he went back to his blueprints, removing flawed elements with a surgeon’s precision to create something sleeker, more powerful. 

In a word, better. 

He did the same with people, easily picking apart their flaws and weaknesses, guarding himself against the day they would let him down. His mother was prone to sadness, his cousins to bravado, and his professors to hubris. And each and every person he met, they all wore some kind of mask or another in an attempt to hide from what they must have known was true; but he, he saw them all, knew them all, and was able to stay aloof. 

Until he met her. 

Bright honey eyes, wide smile, brilliant mind, and the same keen powers of observation that he’d been honing his whole life. She was almost too good to be true, and for the first time in his life, Leopold Fitz didn’t even try to dig deeper, instead opting to let everything come to him. This first leads to another, a first true friendship for both of them, and he finds that he has a whole new world of things to learn, not about science or logic, but about being alive. 

He learned what it was to share lab work, to collaborate instead of jealously guard, to be improved by someone rather than dragged down by selfishness. 

He learned what it was to have an honest conversation, and how to cope with a disagreement without stubbornly refusing to speak to or look said person in the eye ever again.

He slowly, very slowly, learned what it was to trust someone, not just with work or superficial things, but what he held on to for dear life: his father’s death, his fear of failure, his frustration with fearing that he was never quite good enough for what they had asked him to do. She in turn trusted him, and slowly, nearly as slowly as he learned to trust her, she became the center of his universe, and a life without her was inconceivable. 

So, he followed her onto the Bus, despite his failing the physical fitness assessment and her failing the deception requirement, and settled into a life there, happy even if it was a bit chaotic, with the team and game nights and movie nights with her, snuggled up in his bunk. 

It amazed him, despite all his keen powers of observation, that it took something as obvious as a life-threatening virus, an electrically-charged antiserum, and her falling from the cargo ramp to realize what had been sitting before him, plain as anything.

He loved her, and he had no idea what to do. He wasn’t sure which terrified him more, being in love for the first time, or being confronted by a problem that had no solution he could easily solve or even look up. So instead, he plod on, revealing his heart bit by bit to her in the hopes that she would understand what it all meant.

It started small, using her first name instead of her last, first only when they’re alone or when he’s frightened for her, until he can use it in casual conversation without blushing bright pink. It felt nice, oddly domestic, and he was inordinately pleased when she didn’t look at him strangely or insist he go back to using her surname. 

When she didn’t call him on it, he began to wake up just a bit earlier, so he could get to the kitchen first and make her tea. It was a small gesture, nothing life changing, but it made him feel needed, as if her life would fall apart without him. The thought was utterly ridiculous, he knew that logically, but couldn’t let it go. 

Which is likely why it hurt so much when she turned her eyes towards men like Peterson and Triplett, newcomers with no actual knowledge of who she was, other than a reportedly big brain and a pretty face. Still he loved her, marching steadily on even as the world fell apart around them. Even with the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the rise of Hydra, and the seemingly endless amount of work to do and life on the run, he kept on, drawing on her and his hopes for them as a source of strength. 

Yes, he knew exactly what it was to observe something, to find and analyze evidence in order to draw an appropriate, rational conclusion. He knew she did, too, and he had no doubt that she’d do just that with what she’d seen today. 

When Ward had come bursting in, guns leveled at her and dark, hungry eyes blazing, yet another friend turned threat, he felt his muscles tense. He listened as the specialist gave them an ultimatum; come with him and serve Hydra willingly, or be dragged, kicking and screaming and in pain. He had heard the sales pitch once before. 

He wasn’t terribly impressed the second time around, either. 

A bravery he hadn’t realized he’d possessed surged through him, and he stepped in front of her right before a sound like thunder cracked across the lab. 

His last observation, before it grew too dim to see any longer, was of her, eyes watery and frantic as they danced over his form, mouth moving rapidly, curving around the syllable of his name, her hands pressed frantically to his chest, nearly clutching at him. He reached up with shaky hand, brushing red streaks across her cheek, and smiled at her, holding on to the truth he’d finally learned for as long as he could before slipping away. 

She had loved him, too, after all.


End file.
